Beginners Headless Zynthian Tutorial

Introduction
Here's a simple as possible step by step beginners tutorial to setup a headless Zynthian.

A headless Zynthian is a Raspberry Pi with ZynthianOS without the screen, the buttons and the knobs. All is controlled remotely via another computer, a tablet, a smartphone or a midi controller. In most of the cases, the Zynthian Kit is the better way to use ZynthianOS. But sometimes, headless configuration could be interesting.

Hardware

 * 1) Raspberry Pi (Pi4 recommanded)
 * 2) SD card (class 10)
 * 3) Power supply (take the official one)
 * 4) (optionnal but recommended for the best audo experience) an I2S DAC (sound card) (recommanded sound cards)

ZynthianOS

 * 1) Download the last stable Zynthian OS image
 * 2) Download Etcher
 * 3) Burn the ZynthianOS image on an SD card

Network Connection

 * The more simple way for making a network connexion is to directly connect an ethernet cable from the Raspberry Pi to the computer.
 * Another way is to connect the two devices to an Ethernet switch.

Web Browser
You will need a web browser but not all are working well for that purpose.
 * Google Chrome is reported to works well

First Boot
password = raspberry There are tools available to activate the bonjour mechanism to allow using the name which is a much more flexible option.
 * 1) Put the SD on the raspberry
 * 2) Power on by plugin the power supply
 * 3) Wait a little bit
 * 4) Open your web browser
 * On MacOS, go to http://zynthian.local to access the Zynthian WebConf Tool
 * On Windows, first find the IP address of the Raspberry Pi, then type the IP address on the web browser to access the Zynthian WebConf Tool.

If you cannot enter to the Zynthian WebConf Tools, wait a little bit more. Then try to reboot by powering off. Then, try to burn another SD card.

Configure Internet
System / WIFI / Add Network Mode = ON
 * If you are connected via an ethernet switch, connect the switch to your internet box
 * If you are directly connected via an ethernet cable, configure the Wifi on the WebConf page:

Update ZynthianOS
Now that you are connected to the Internet, you can update Zynthian OS via the WebConf: [http://zynthian.local/sw-update Software / Update ] System / Reboot

Configure the hardware
Configure your hardware setup via the WebConf: Hardware / Kit / Custom Hardware / Audio / Select your soundcard on the list or choose RBPiHeadphones Hardware / Display / Generic HDMI Display Hardware / Wiring / DUMMIES System/sys-reboot / Reboot

Activate VNC Server on the Raspberry Pi
VNC allows you to remotely have the Raspberry Pi screen on your personal computer, your tablet or your smartphone. With your browser pointing to http://zynthian.local, navigate to Interface => UI Options scroll at the bottom and check "Enable VNC server"

Install VNC Viewer in your Devices
1. Download and install VNC viewer in your devices:
 * MacOS and Windows
 * iOS
 * Android

2. Connect to the Zynthian UI via VNC: You should be on the same network (ethernet cable and/or Wifi). Type the raspberry pi IP address (on Windows and android) or zynthian.local (on MacOS and iOS) in VNC Viewer. User name : root Password : raspberry

You should now have the Zynthian UI working remotely.

For a better use, configure Zynthian UI for headless use in the WebConf: [http://zynthian.local/ui-options Interface / UI options ] Advanced view : ON Enable Touch Widgets: ON Enable cursor: ON

On stage, you can disconnect the Zynthian from internet and configure it as a hotspot for connecting your devices to it. For this, go to the WebConf: System / WIFI / Hotspot

Accessing the Native GUI
If you want to access from your computer to the Graphical User Interface of softwares like Pure data or Pianoteq that run on the Raspberry Pi, you need to install an X11 server on your computer:
 * On MacOS: Xquartz
 * On Windows: Xming

On the X11 server’s terminal (xterm) that run on your computer, send the command: ssh -Y root@zynthian.local On the Zythian UI, create a new Pure Data layer (or other engine with supported native GUI) and the Pure Data GUI should appears on your computer screen.

Software / MOD-UI
 * Note that you can access MOD-UI (the virtual pedal board) without X11. When you have created a MOD-UI layer, just go to the WebConf :

Accessing the ZynthianOS Folders
If you want to graphically access to the Zynthian OS files and folders (not recommended for beginners):

1. install an SFPT client on your computer: 2. Open an SFPT connection: Server : zynthian.local (MacOS) or IP Address (Windows) User : root Password : raspberry 3. If, for exemple, you want to access to the Pure Data externals folders for manually installing externals that aren’t available via another way, simply use it as a normal finder and go to: /usr/lib/pd/extra And upload your custom externals.
 * On MacOS: Cyberduck
 * On Windows: PuTTy